BEARS HAVE ALREADY BLOWN THIS
Forget Nagy; they need a revolutionary big boss like Wolf or Finks
The Bears did not fire coach Matt Nagy on Monday to take advantage of a new NFL rule that allows teams with coaching vacancies to interview candidates from other teams during the final two weeks of the regular season.
No big deal for the Bears. The “early firing period” is overrated, with teams limited to two-hour virtual interviews. That’s a tough way to find a coach, especially for the Bears. They do cloak-anddagger, due-diligence searches for their big acquisitions and come up with selections like quarterback Mitch Trubisky and Nagy. What are the odds they’ll find their guy in a two-hour Zoom call?
The Bears need bigger changes than hiring a new coach. At the least, they need to follow the Bulls’ lead and push general manager Ryan Pace into a John Paxson role behind their Arturas Karnisovas, if they can find him. Pace has certifiable personnel chops but has swung and missed too often on big moves. The Bears need a home-run hitter in the clean-up spot.
So while the focus has been on Nagy this week, it’s at the GM/president of football operations level where the Bears needed to make their early move, to get someone in place to get the lay of the land and find a new coach.
For what it’s worth, that’s how the Packers changed their fortunes in 1991, when they fired GM Tom Braatz and hired Ron Wolf with four weeks to go in the regular season. Wolf ’s first game as GM was against the Falcons, where a pregame chat with Falcons personnel chief Ken Herock alerted Wolf that rookie backup quarterback Brett Favre was available. Wolf made the deal for Favre, and the rest is history. The Bears, who at the time were dominating the Packers, have been chasing their rival for the last 30 years. Getting Favre was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but if the Bears are going to think big, the sooner the better. The problem, of course, is that at Halas Hall, they never think quite as big as they need to. Not under McCaskey leadership, anyhow. When George Halas knew change was necessary, the Bears hired Jim Finks early in the 1974 season and put him in charge of the entire operation. Finks hired coach Jack Pardee, drafted Walter Payton the following January, and the rest is history. Therein lies the difference between the Halases and the McCaskeys. When George Halas went out of the family for leadership, son Mugs Halas hired Finks, a proven GM who had built the Vikings into a Super Bowl team from the ground up. When the McCaskeys went outside the family for leadership, they promoted Ted Phillips, an accountant and contract negotiator.
So it’s the same old story with the Bears, who have won four playoff games in 29 seasons since Michael McCaskey fired Mike Ditka and put the team totally in McCaskey family hands. It starts at the top.
2 Red Flag Department: Nick Foles’ winning performance against the Seahawks on Sunday — after not even knowing he was starting until Friday — continued an odd trend in Nagy’s offense: Veteran quarterbacks who come in cold or with limited to no practice time are 5-1 with a 98.8 passer rating (nine touchdowns, one interception) in Nagy’s four seasons.
Previous short-notice winners were Chase Daniel in 2018 (106.8 passer rating vs. the Lions) and 2019 (101.4 vs. the Vikings), Foles in 2020 (three touchdowns vs. the Falcons) and Andy Dalton this season (317 passing yards vs. the Lions).
3 Nagy’s gamble on a two-point conversion with 1:01 left in regulation Sunday was only the second time the Bears have opted against a tying PAT to instead go for the win in the final minutes.
The only other time also was in a what-have-we-got-to-lose situation: In 1997, Dave Wannstedt’s Bears were 0-6 but had a chance to end a seven-game losing streak against the Packers after their touchdown with 1:54 left made it a 24-23 game at Soldier Field. But Erik Kramer’s swing pass to Raymont Harris was high and wide for an incompletion.
4 With their 25-24 victory over the Seahawks, the Bears are 4-21 (.160) when allowing 24 or more points in four seasons under Nagy. The only teams with a worse winning percentage in that span when allowing 24 or more points are Washington (2-29, .065) and the Jaguars (1-38, .026).
5 The Bears sacked Russell Wilson twice, but they had no takeaways for the fifth time in the last eight games.
The Bears lead the NFL in sacks per pass play but have just 11 takeaways this season. Over the previous 10 seasons, the league leader in sacks has averaged 26.7 takeaways, with none lower than 20
(the 2018 Vikings).
6 Maybe Justin Fields should just sit out the final two games and wait for the new offense he figures to be playing in next season. This Bears offense doesn’t seem very rookie-friendly, and while most rookie quarterbacks struggle in the NFL, Fields has struggled more than most. Of the 19 rookie QBs since 2017 to start eight or more games, Fields ranks 14th with a 73.2 passer rating. His 58.9% completion rate ranks 13th. His 155.8 yards per game ranks 19th. Even third-round pick Davis Mills seems to be making steadier progress, with ratings of 93.2, 92.2 and 130.6 in his last three starts for the Texans.
7 Nose tackle Eddie Goldman played just 18 snaps against the Seahawks and was shut out on the stat sheet. Although statistics generally don’t quantify Goldman’s impact, by the eye test, he’s having a tough comeback season after opting out of last season. Even line coach Chris Rumph acknowledged that.
“It’s been a slow year — it hasn’t been his year,” Rumph said. “It’s almost like a rookie year or second year for him trying to get back in the groove of things.”
Rumph said he’s confident Goldman, a Pro Bowl alternate in 2019, can get back to where he was. But it’ll take some work.
“No doubt,” Rumph said. “It’s going to be a very important offseason for him to get his body right, his mind right and be the dominant guy he’s capable of being.”
8 Linebacker Robert Quinn needs just one sack in the final two games to eclipse defensive end Richard Dent’s franchise record of 17½ sacks in a season. And that’s with Quinn missing the Buccaneers game while on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Quinn has had at least a share of a sack in 12 of his 14 games — at least one in the last seven games — with no cheapies. Thirty-seven years later, it’s hard to explain what a force of nature Dent was in 1984, in his second NFL season after being drafted in the eighth round. Dent started that season as a backup behind Tyrone Keys, with one sack in six games. He became a starter in Week 7 and had 16½ sacks in the final 10 games. Then he had three more sacks in an upset of the Redskins in the playoffs and three more in the Pro Bowl. That’s 22½ sacks in his final 12 games that season. And he was just getting started.
9 Josh McCown Ex-Bears Player of the Week: Jets kicker Eddy Pineiro kicked field goals of 42 and 20 yards in a 26-21 victory over the Jaguars. Pineiro is 6-for-6 on field goals in three games with the Jets.
10 Bear-ometer: 6-11 — vs. Giants (W); at Vikings (L).